Satan's Strategy to Legitimize and Normalize Perversion

Satan has a strategy to legitimize and normalize perversion. The Bible forewarns us that every society that refuses to acknowledge and worship God will sink into the abyss of sexual degeneracy. (Romans 1:21-27) The definition of perversion is the turning away from what is right, proper, or good. Any time we pervert God’s intended purpose for creation, we dishonor God and hurt ourselves. This is especially true regarding sex. What God intended for great good has been used to bring incredible harm.

Satan’s strategy in the garden of Eden was first to bring into question the truthfulness of God’s words.

That remains one of his chief weapons of mass destruction.

He began by asking Eve a seemingly innocuous question.

...“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” Genesis 3:1b (NLT)

The serpent couched an accusation inside his question. The Bible calls the devil the “accuser of the brethren” for good reason. (Revelation 12:10) In fact, God generously permitted his first people to eat from any tree of the garden, except one. Satan twisted that into God’s saying they could not eat from any of the trees, which put Eve on the defensive immediately. The penalty for eating that fruit would be death. Eve quickly revealed that she did not fully understand God’s command, which was perhaps the purpose of the probing question. She thought the prohibition also included not touching the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Perhaps Adam added that extra bit when he passed on the commandment to Eve, thinking it would strengthen what God said and make the fruit seem even more “off limits”.

We can safely say that it is never a good idea to add to God’s words. That is where most legalism starts.

Next Satan escalated his attack by flatly contradicting God’s warning.

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” ⁶ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Genesis 3:4-7 (NLT)

What so quickly convinced Eve that God was a liar? Why did she so soon turn against her Creator and doubt his good intentions toward her and Adam?

If we learn nothing else from this account, it is that humans are extremely susceptible to deception and accept lies more quickly than truth.

Humanity took a nose dive that day. God’s beautiful creation was perverted at its core, setting the course of history into a downward spiral which continues to this day. Only God can and will save us. In fact, that is just what he did when he sent his Son to live, die, and rise again. Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection set in motion God’s great reclamation project which will culminate at Christ’s Second Coming. It will include the generation of a new heaven and earth.

For all practical purposes, the war was won and the final outcome determined when Jesus rose from the dead some 2000 years ago. Nevertheless, skirmishes and battles continue as human history moves toward the glorious return of God’s Son. The Lord is working to increase his family through preaching the gospel and making disciples. Satan is likewise advocating a false gospel of humanism and developing his own followers who will follow his lie into hell.

Our sexuality is fundamental to how God made us.

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NLT)

For most of human history almost everyone understood that there are only two genders, but in an effort to undermine God’s intention and destroy humanity, Satan has attacked that fundamental truth. A great number of people once again have fallen for the serpent’s lie.

Now we are told that we can declare ourselves to be whatever gender we wish whenever we desire. We can even use surgery and hormone therapy to make the change look somewhat real. However, the truth is that we can never alter our DNA. Men have X and Y chromosomes, and women possess a double X. As much as we may wish and as hard as we may try, how God made us is irreversible. Some things we must simply accept and play the hand we were dealt.

Behind the push to deny and pervert how God created us is an implacable rebellion against the sovereign choice of the Creator.

Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? ² The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one. ³ “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.” Psalm 2:1-3 (NLT)

Sin has twisted humanity. Yes, there is such a thing as gender dysphoria. Yes, plenty of people are confused regarding sexual identity and gender, but this does not mean that we abandon God’s original intention for his creation and affirm the confusion as being normal. We can love people no matter what they think about sex or gender, but such love does not have to include affirming their behavior.

When a society rejects God, it eventually descends into the kind of rebellion that actively recruits and encourages sinful behavior in others.

They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:32 (NLT)

We must teach our children to stand for truth and resist efforts to enfold them into a cultural acceptance of the current rebellion against God’s created order. If necessary, we must remove them from any school system, church, or other institution that works to groom adults and children to accept these blatant attacks against God’s truth. God wants us to openly and unashamedly declare our allegiance to our Lord Jesus and to the truth contained in the Bible.